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June 23, 2022

Uvalde School Police Head Placed on Leave as Local & State Officials Blame Each Other for Mistakes
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In news from Uvalde, Texas, the head of the school district's police
force, Pete Arredondo, has been placed on administrative leave as
criticism mounts over the police response to last month's school
massacre when an 18-year-old gunman shot dead 19 fourth graders and two
teachers. On Tuesday, Texas's Department of Public Safety Director Steve
Mc Craw described the local police handling of the shooting as an
"abject failure." Mc Craw said there was a sufficient number of armed
officers wearing body armor to confront the gunman three minutes after
the gunman entered the school; however, officers waited over an hour in
the hallway. Meanwhile, the mayor of Uvalde has accused Mc Craw of
continuing to "lie, leak, mislead, or misstate information" to cover up
mistakes made by the state police. On Tuesday, Mc Craw revealed 91 state
troopers responded to the school shooting; many of the officers were
from Operation Lone Star, a joint mission of the Texas Department of
Public Safety and the Texas Military Department. Mc Craw has also
revealed both local and state police faced a problem with police radios
not working inside the school. On Wednesday, Texas state Senator Roland
Gutierrez sued Texas's Department of Public Safety for withholding
documents related to the shooting. The lawsuit states, "In the wake of
the senseless tragedy, the people of Uvalde and Texas have demanded
answers from their government. To date, they have been met with lies,
misstatements, and shifts of blame."


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